These Huge Companies Are Now Household Names, But Their Humble Beginnings Are Inspiring

This Health Store Giant Wasn’t Always A Success Story

Whole Foods Market is widely known as a leader in health-conscious food products, but it wasn’t always a huge hit. Its beginnings were due to 25-year-old John Mackey and 21-year-old Renee Lawson Hardy, who borrowed money to open a natural food store in Austin, Texas in 1978.

The couple was evicted from their apartment a year later, and they were forced to live in the store and shower in the Hobart dishwasher. Two years later they merged with another natural food store to create the first Whole Foods Market in 1980. Whole Foods is now a Fortune 500 company, but it all started with a couple’s dream.